NASA announces unprecedented return of sick ISS astronaut and crew
NASA has announced the early return of Crew-11 from the International Space Station after an unidentified astronaut experienced a medical problem.
Category: Science
China’s ‘artificial sun’ reactor shatters major fusion limit — a step closer to near-limitless clean energy
China’s EAST nuclear fusion reactor has successfully kept plasma stable at extreme densities, passing a major fusion milestone and potentially bringing humanity closer to wielding
Homo erectus wasn’t the first human species to leave Africa 1.8 million years ago, fossils suggest
A new analysis of enigmatic skulls from the Republic of Georgia suggest that Homo erectus wasn’t the only human species to leave Africa 1.8 million
Avenue of the Baobabs: Madagascar’s natural monument with dozens of ‘mother of the forest’ trees
The Avenue of the Baobabs preserves the remnant trees of an ancient tropical forest on Madagascar.
This week in science: elephant trunks, butterfly migration and a hot galaxy cluster
NPR’s Short Wave talks about elephants’ sniffing abilities, the remarkable migration of painted lady butterflies and a surprising discovery about the early universe.
An all-female wasp is rapidly spreading across North America’s elms
The elm zigzag sawfly has spread to 15 states in five years. Now it’s attacking the tree that cities planted to replace Dutch elm disease
A newly spotted asteroid spins faster than any of its size ever seen
Among the first finds from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the discovery hints at a population of exceptionally strong asteroids.
Giant sunspot that triggered recent solar ‘superstorm’ shot out nearly 1,000 flares and a secret X-rated explosion, record-breaking study reveals
The massive sunspot that sparked an “extreme” geomagnetic storm in May 2024 unleashed hundreds of other dangerous solar flares, including a hidden X-class outburst, a
Never-before-seen footage captures moment scientists find new, giant anaconda species in Amazon
The Waorani capture an Anaconda in Bameno, Ecuador.
Tiny bump on 7 million-year-old fossil suggests ancient ape walked upright — and might even be a human ancestor
The way Sahelanthropus tchadensis moved has long been debated. The discovery of a small bump on the front of the thigh bone is “beyond convincing”
Best of 2025: Artemis II Countdown Demonstration Test
Artemis II crewmembers (left to right) NASA astronauts Christina Koch, mission specialist; and Victor Glover, pilot; CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen, mission specialist;
Science history: Sophie Germain, first woman to win France’s prestigious ‘Grand Mathematics Prize’ is snubbed when tickets to award ceremony are ‘lost in the mail’ — Jan. 9, 1816
Sophie Germain was a brilliant, self-taught mathematician who won one of France’s most prestigious prizes, yet she declined to attend the award ceremony because the
NASA telescope combines 100 maps of the universe into one: ‘every astronomer is going to find something of value here’
NASA’s SPHEREx telescope unveiled its first full-sky map of the universe, combining more than 100 infrared observations into one dazzling mosaic.
9,500-year-old cremation pyre of a hunter-gatherer woman is the oldest of its kind in the world
Hunter-gatherers cremated the headless body of a woman in a pyre around 9,500 years ago in what is now Malawi.